Various industries require automated systems for the precise dispensing of samples from one storage device to a workstation or another storage device. For example, in typical pharmaceutical research laboratory processes, labs may be involved in genetic sequencing, combinatorial chemistry, reagent distribution, high throughput screening, and the like. A dominant thread that is present in each of these processes is that, if one ignores the incubation or reaction periods (which in properly designed automation, should not tie up the other devices), the vast majority of time is spent dealing with individual sample handling (e.g., dispensing).
Individual samples refer to the samples that get distributed to a storage device, such as a well, as opposed to those samples that get distributed over, for example, multiple wells forming a whole plate. In sequencing, for example, these may include the picked bacteria and templates; in combinatorial chemistry, for example, it may include the building blocks that define the next step in the reaction, and in high throughput screening, for example, it may include the test compounds. The reason that this is such a time consuming process is that a tip wash or replacement is typically required between every transfer operation. Both washing and changing tips take a good deal of time, often as long as 15 or more seconds.
Conventional dispensing devices include, for example, pipette devices which are separate devices intended for dispensing a known quantity of a sample (e.g., biological or chemical reagents) from a source storage device to a destination storage device for use in various processes. Traditionally, these pipettes can be activated either manually or automatically. The same pipette device may draw a different sample from any number of different storage devices. Accordingly, conventional pipettes also require a tip wash or replacement between every sample transfer operation.
What is needed by various sample handling and manipulation industries, such as, for example, the pharmaceutical discovery, clinical diagnostics, and manufacturing industries, is a precise sample dispensing system and method that overcome the drawbacks in the prior art. Specifically, a system and method having a dispensing mechanism formed as part of a storage device for precisely dispensing samples from the storage device to a workstation or another storage device. What is also needed is an inexpensive dispensing mechanism that does not require a tip change or wash between each handling of a sample. Therefore, a need exists for an accurate sample dispensing system and method that overcome the drawbacks of the prior art.